SIOUX FALLS (SD)
Sioux City Journal
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A lawsuit against an American Indian school in Chamberlain has been dismissed.
The lawsuit, which claimed 20 former students were mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually abused while attending the school, was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice, said Adam Horowitz, a Miami lawyer.
That means the lawsuit likely will be refiled with an amended complaint and the addition of another defendant, said Horowitz, one of the former students' attorneys. One addition will be the Sioux Falls Catholic Diocese, he said.
The original lawsuit was against the St. Joseph Indian School in Chamberlain and two entities associated with the school.
The 20 former students are from six different states, and include 14 from South Dakota. They said they were regularly beaten and sexually assaulted in the 1950s through the '70s. Some former students said they were stripped, beaten and humiliated. One person said she was sexually molested by a priest.